The Making of … a Book

By Ann Shayne 4/18/05

Dear everybody,
We don’t exactly know how to tell you this, but for the past eight months or so, we have been been fooling around. We have been knitting in secret and making foxy young pals model the stuff we made. Like characters in a bad Country & Western song, we have been book-writin’ when we should have been knitbloggin’.
Yes, book-writin’. See?
Eight-year-old Carrie took one look at the edited manuscript and said, “Wow. You must have made a lot of mistakes.”
So. True.
But, mistakes and all, we are really excited that we will have a book that we can give to friends and relatives for every birthday until they say, “Uh, thanks, it’s so great to have three of these now. I’m good.”
The book won’t be out until next spring, from Clarkson Potter/Random House. The title will be Mason-Dixon Knitting. (Isn’t that a great title? We’re still looking for a subtitle if you’ve got any good ones….)
Some outtakes from the last few months:
Ann and her sister-in-law Mary Neal knit some stuff while other stuff was being photographed at a borrowed house in the Catskills. That night, the Knitting Slumber Party continued while we ate cashew brittle as an entree, gossiped about people related to Ann and Mary Neal (Kay tried to get a word in edgewise about her relatives, but her family wasn’t nearly weird enough to compete), and watched The English Patient. (Yes, we replayed the part where Ralph Fiennes is crying while carrying his dead love’s body across the sands. Of course we did.)
Photographer Steve Gross, who as you can tell is just OVER THE MOON to be realizing his Personal Lifetime Goal of photographing actual handknits. The only strange thing was that Steve and his partner Sue Daley, real photographers who have done many real books, kept acting like taking pictures of our knitting was a real job. You know? Like it was actually going to end up being a real book? Kooky!
One wonderful discovery: If you ask, kind people will let you borrow their beautiful house, their beautiful body, or even their beautiful baby! (The dog we had to pay for–Mabel is a pro, and pros do not work for free).
It wasn’t all Ralph Fiennes and cashew brittle. Recently, things took an ugly turn, when it was time to respond to the editors’ queries (let’s just say these queries were, um, numerous). This involved locking ourselves in a dimly lit kitchen and lots of office supplies.
The Anncam captured Kay’s body language the moment after Ann told Kay that she wanted her to scotch-tape 205 tiny pictures onto 205 Post-It notes and stick them into 205 places on the manuscript, while keeping a meticulous record.
In case anybody’s wondering, what’s this book about? Well, it’s got Lavish Illustrations, projects to knit, and extra helpings of blabbing. Blabbing that’s never before been blabbed! All the blabbing that’s fit to blab! Plus some surprise guests you may know.
It’s been a wonderful, giddy journey for two Internet pals who didn’t even meet until they had a book deal.
Love,
Kay and Ann

Congratulations Ann and Kay! Y’all’s blog is one of the ones I most look forward to _reading_ (as opposed to just looking at for knitting content), so I am looking forward to the blabbing! And I’ve gotten so much use out of your buttonhole bag pattern–if you’ve got even one pattern in the book that is even half as handy, it will be well worth the price!

So…I’ll expect one for my birthday in June of 2006! I’m totally writing it on my calendar…”book from Kay and Ann”…there…it’s written in ink, so it’s not going anywhere!! Congrats ladies!! I’m so excited for you two!

Wow, congratulations! I am glad I didn’t have to scotch-tape those pictures, but I will certainly look forward to seeing them all in place! Mason-Dixon Knitting: Pass the knitting water! (Snappy subtitle??)
Well done!
Mary de B

Sign me up for a book from the initial printing! Signed! Delighted for you! Come to my house when you do the Chicago tour okay? I have a lovely screened porch and you can relax here (and maybe knit with me!)

Ann SO wrote this entry. it’s got her stamp of understatement all over it.
Anywho, I’m so glad you’re out with the secret now so I can talk about it on my site (’cause all three of my fans might have blown your cover!! I mean, it’s the Smoking Gun of the Knitting Establishment, no?). I’ve been reSTRAINing myself for lo these months now since the Sew-Up Bee in Nashvegas. We are so happy for ya’ll. The Yarn Harlot AND the Mason-Dixon crew all in the same YEAR?? It’s too much. I can’t stand it. Someone fix me a Bloody Mary.
Mason-Dixon Knitting
Way More Fun Than the Civil War
or how ’bout this
Mason-Dixon Knitting
Knitting a Nation Together
or this
Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Book
They Sure Have Been Wasting A Lot of Time on This

Well, first of all many congratulations!
I have authored a large manual in my chosen discipline (OT)I can certainly vouch for how much hellish work it can be, especially the author queries (once you have the draft done and you think you’re on the finish line and on the road to fame and acclaim, then come the AQ’s…). I must say, on a different note, I have been in the process since I started lurking and occasionally commenting on knitting blogs (I started with yours and now spend most of my time on Norwegian and Swedish blogs, neither of which can I read but it’s alot of fun…still visit you weekly) that my blog reading has lead me to try to believe that just because something’s in cyber space doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, on some tangible level. By morphing into authors in print, you’ve turned this intangible thing into something tangible. Once again, you’re forcing me to change my perspective! Good for you! (I had a hard time when libraries went from card to online catalogs too, I’m a strong believer in paper!) But I gotta ask: did you get your contract because some editor was impressed with your blog?
Skol! Wendy in Massachusetts

Oh Kay & Ann! Congratulations. Over and over again – congrads! How exciting. Now we, your faithful blog following, will have to share you with the whole world. And I just know the whole world will love you two, too.

Hurrah! I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months, and it’s not just your superb craftiness that keeps me coming back–it’s your sense(s?) of humor and the great way you have of putting things, that way that makes me think, “That’s exactly the clever way I would want to talk about fainting goats/kiri shawl April Fool’s jokes/brilliant Lent sacrifices/etc.”
I can’t wait for the book!

OMFG!!!! Mason Dixon on my bedside table! Ann and Kay in my knitting bag! I love to read! I love to knit! A book! I am so proud. Like everyone is asking….when can I pre-order? and I am not joking to make you feel good either

Congratulations! Now I will have something portable when I need a Mason-Dixon Knitting cleverness fix. Will it include some of my favortie lines such as,
“Where there is a hat for Maggie, verily there shall be a hat for Paul. Not that Paul likes hats. Paul likes Justice. Paul likes Inter-Sibling Equity. I am a sibling myself. I share these time-honored values. No problem.”
2/2/04
or
“I had Joseph with me, due to Spousal Failure To Make Self Useful this past weekend.” 3/5/05

At last! This will be a guaranteed classic, destined for many reprintings. And then you will have to change the tag line from Kay’s husband.
(Nope, this is a career, buddy. I have an actual FOLLOWING…)

Bless your little hearts. If you could see me, you would be surprised at how puffed up with pride I am just to know you two.
Brilliance, fabulousness..and it couldn’t happen to more deserving knitters. Don’t bother giving me one for my birthday. I’ll have bought my own three by then.

The blogiverse is exploding with literature! Harlot, Wendyknits, youse guys….I am so happy that you are all getting published. Not that WE don’t appreciate you more than you know, but there’s something about being published that lets the whole darn world appreciate you!

Wow, what fun news today! I’ve been reading the blog for just a few months and it never fails to amuse, inform, and inspire. I’m only disppointed when there aren’t more frequent posts–and now we know why! Tickled pink, I am.

I have read your blog since I started reading blogs about 6 months ago – it is so fantastic. And now, to think, there is a book on the way. How absolutely amazing for you (& for me since I get to buy the book).

Congratulations and cheers! We will all be popping corks when that one hits the bookstores, won’t we?
I used to work at a book publisher and I must say, those sticky notes look *mighty* familiar! LOL
Now. Exactly which cities will be on your book tour?

No effin way! I am so excited for the two of you. I thought there was a suspicious air about the place recently…
For the subtitle? Well, I always crack up at the little subtitle quotes from your husbands up top of the blog.

Well, now. If it’s the first time you’ve been published – way to go, ladies. If not, even more kudos and now you could take it easy and walk over broken glass. Remind your editors you are the meal ticket, I promise you as one it will be sobering in a zen-like way. Other houses should have such authors. Will pre-order as soon as the title comes up.

Y’all have no idea how hard it’s been for me to keep my mouth shut about this! I’m not a mouth-shutting kind of girl… WooHOO!!! I cannot wait to see it, read it and knit it! And give it to all my knitter friends for their birthdays! Congratulations!!!

I’m so happy for both of you. It’s like family! may I be the third person to buy your book on Amazon. Can’t wait to put my order in for your book!
Bravo!
Just love my Buttonhole bag. People commnet on it everytime I wear it!
sandy